ERG’s EPD Quality Program

Program Overview How the Program Will Work Contact Us Program Updates

Quality Program Overview

ERG’s program is intended to give purchasers confidence in the EPDs they use to source products with lower environmental impacts. We will provide an independent evaluation of the EPD development process and make it easy to identify, view, and compare EPDs that meet our program requirements.

Our program will leverage existing standards for PCRs to support more consistent and transparent EPDs, ensuring they conform with the latest and greatest criteria. We will start by evaluating EPDs for construction and building products before expanding into other sectors.  

ERG is undertaking this effort with decades of subject matter expertise, strong relationships with key stakeholders, and practical experience supporting embodied carbon work for public agencies. Not only is ERG home to leading life cycle assessment and environmental reporting experts, it’s also an unbiased and independent company.  

How the Program Will Work

Our program has three major components:

  1. Assess PCRs to ensure they conform to either the ACLCA PCR Open Standard or EPA’s PCR Criteria, as described in more detail below.  
  2. Evaluate EPDs developed under conformant PCRs against our Requirements for Environmental Product Declarations, which are based on existing standards and best practices. EPDs that meet the requirements outlined in #1 and #2 will then be featured.
  3. Feature EPDs that meet our requirements in the product impact (pi) tool and other EPD platforms.

How will ERG assess PCRs?

To be evaluated under this program, an EPD must be developed under a PCR that conforms to either ACLCA PCR Open Standard or EPA’s PCR Criteria. Each of these pathways is explained below.  

Pathway for PCRs that Conform to ACLCA’s PCR Open Standard  

For PCRs that conform to ACLCA’s PCR Open Standard, ERG will review documentation from program operators that demonstrates PCR conformance. Our review will be based on completed ACLCA’s PCR Open Standard checklists for each PCR provided by the program operator.  

ACLCA’s PCR Open Standard includes three levels of conformance:  

  • Transparency  
  • Procurement  
  • Data source  

This PCR pathway is aligned with the Transparency level of conformance.  

Pathway for PCRs that Conform to EPA’s PCR Criteria  

For construction sector PCRs covered by ISO 21930:2017, ERG will assess conformance to EPA’s PCR Criteria. If a PCR was previously reviewed by EPA, the program operator may submit documentation of that review to ERG to streamline our assessment.

EPA’s PCR Criteria includes three sets of criteria:  

  • Baseline criteria that all PCRs would be required to meet  
  • Baseline criteria that PCRs would have needed to meet by January 2026  
  • Leadership criteria  

This PCR pathway is primarily aligned with the baseline set of criteria but excludes the baseline criteria that PCRs would have been required to meet starting January 2026.

Please contact us for more information if you are a program operator.

How will ERG evaluate EPDs?

ERG will review each EPD against ERG’s Environmental Product Declaration Requirements, which details the information that must be disclosed in an EPD to be recognized by our quality program. This review process is fully automated, allowing digitized EPDs to be processed quickly and cost-effectively. Digitized EPDs can be transferred directly from the program operator to ERG via an application programming interface (API). Our system is compatible with openEPD and other structured data formats.  

For EPDs that are in PDF format, ERG can provide digitization services for a fee–please contact us for more information.  

How will ERG feature EPDs that meet our requirements?

EPDs that meet our requirements will be accessible through ERG’s product impact (pi) platform, allowing users to easily find EPDs that meet our requirements. We expect to have quality-reviewed EPDs available in the pi database in the second half of 2026. We also intend to share the status of evaluated EPDs with other EPD platforms via API.  

Program Documents

We accepted comments on these documents through June 15, 2026, and we will incorporate the comments in a future update.  

Contact Us

Please use the form below to get in touch with us or sign up for our newsletter! 

Upcoming Opportunities to Engage with ERG’s EPD Quality Program

EPD Quality Program staff will be at the following events. We hope to see you there!

Meet the ERG EPD Quality Program Team

A team of leading embodied carbon experts is directing the development of ERG’s EPD Quality Program. With experience spanning public procurement, industry environmental reporting, PCR development, EPD software product management, sustainability labeling, novel material production, and LCA and LCI development, together the group brings over 50 years of experience in LCAs and EPDs.
 

Peter Bacas

Peter Bacas

Sarah Cashman

Sarah Cashman

Troy Hottle

Troy Hottle

Mark Petruzzi

Mark Petruzzi

Joseph Shacat

Joseph Shacat

Have questions or want to provide input? Send us an email at EPDQuality@erg.com.

Program Updates

March 31, 2026 We published our program requirements. Please contact us if you have comments or questions about the program requirements.  

November 13, 2025 The EPD Quality Program team discussed program goals, the use of underlying standards, draft program requirements and upcoming opportunities to provide feedback on them, and the anticipated implementation timeline. 

July 7, 2025 ERG announced the development of our EPD quality program.  

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